POLL: Flyer vs Flier

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There are some things I am very passionate about.

That list includes the Oxford comma, two spaces after a period, and an inexplicable preference for sans serif fonts. I’ve gotten into passionate arguments about all three.

I once threw a copy of The Elements of Style at a colleague. I should not be proud of that moment, but the jerk deserved it.

Swiping to the left is automatic for jumbled homonyms and contractions.

I’m excessively fond of ellipses, even If I know I’m taking Cummings-esque liberties with them…

Judging people who use Comic Sans without irony is automatic.

And I’m a big believer that some words are better with extra vowels – colour and flavour, being two. Or rearranged letters (theatre vs. theater).

So its no surprise that I feel fairly confident that I am a frequent flyer, not a frequent flier.

Or at least I was until a group of friends started discussing this yesterday. Now I’m not so certain of myself and Strunk and White aren’t of much help either (or at least not in my dog-eared copy). I realized I’ve used both interchangeably over the years without noticing.

Perhaps its the fifteen years of lurking around FlyerTalk. Or the assertion of some of my UK friends that you can use them interchangeably on the other side of the pond. Neither of those necessarily points to the right answer so I will ask you, my readers – flyer vs flier – which is correct?

Flyer vs. Flier - Which do you use to describe an air traveler?

flyer (57%, 13 Votes)

flier (26%, 6 Votes)

both flier and flyer (17%, 4 Votes)

Total Voters: 23

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Please feel free to elaborate on your answer in the comments below.

Just because I’m asking, doesn’t mean I’m considering a change. But I will consider the data point. Just keep in mind that the AP Stylebook hurts if it hits you in the forehead.

Jennifer is a management consultant and avid volunteer. Her career and volunteer duty travels have helped her log top-tier airline and hotel status annually for the last eighteen years. In addition, she embraces the opportunity to maximize her vacation time by planning extracurricular trips that have taken her to over 60 countries and 48.5 US states. Although she averages 200 days a year on the road, she loves to return to “the homestead” in her native Fort Worth, Texas where she enjoys cooking, gardening, sewing, needlepoint, wine, and cocktail mixology.

Being a grammar freak myself, it is easy to see that the the nut did not fall far from the tree. The only thing worse than misspellings and writing errors is the inability to correctly speak the king’s english.